DePauw grad’s movie ‘Clemency’ takes Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Festival

Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Chinonye Chukwu

“Clemency,” written and directed by 2007 DePauw University graduate Chinonye Chukwu, claimed the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. dramatic competition as the 2019 Sundance Film Festival handed out its awards Saturday night.

Chukwu becomes the first black woman to win the festival’s biggest prize, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

As she accepted the honor, Chukwu said one of her hopes, which she would like the film to play a role in, is that “we can end mass incarceration and dismantle the prison-industrial complex.”

“Clemency” -- which stars Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge and Richard Schiff -- had its world premiere last Sunday at Sundance. Chukwu wrote and directed the film.

After the premiere screening, The Reporter noted that “Clemency” is “a superbly crafted film, particularly in terms of its visual sense ... a “powerful drama that [has] ... humanity and compassion invested across all the principal characters ... [and] is never less than engrossing and often acutely affecting.”

An English writing major at DePauw, Chinonye Chukwu was a 2009 recipient of the Princess Grace Award. Her debut feature film, “AlaskaLand,” was screened at the Chicago International Film Festival and the New York African Festival at Lincoln Center. Her short film, “The Dance Lesson,” was a regional finalist for the 2010 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Student Academy Awards.

Her film “A Long Walk” is an adaptation of a short story by DePauw Professor Samuel Autman.

Chukwu has served as an assistant professor of motion pictures at Wright State University, where she began the research that resulted in “Clemency.”

Last week, it was reported that Chukwu is in line to direct a screen adaptation of “A Taste of Power,” the memoir by Black Panther leader Elaine Brown.

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